Fourth Industrial Revolution:Technological Drivers,Impacts and Coping Methods

The world is marching into a new development period when the digital technology,physical technology,and biological technology have achieved an unprecedented development respectively in their own fields,and at the same time their applications are converging greatly.These are the three major technological drivers for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.This paper discusses the specific technology niches of each kind technological driver behind the Fourth Industrial Revolution,and then evaluates impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on global industrial,economic,and social development.At last this paper proposes possible measures and policies for both firms and governments to cope with the changes brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Prospects of Germany’s Sci-Tech Policy in the Post-Merkel Era

During Angela Merkel’s administration,the German government supported scientific and technological policies that promote German socioeconomic development.After a narrow election win for the Social Democratic Party,Merkel’s position as chancellor will be filled by a leader chosen by a coalition of Germany’s political parties which differ somewhat in their positions on science and technology policy.Also affected by ChinaUS competition,EU strategy,and domestic political pressures in response to economic slowdown and the summer’s heavy flooding,post-Merkel policy is likely to increase both state intervention in scientific research and its investment in climate neutralizing technology,meanwhile strengthening trans-Atlantic tech cooperation and adjusting to China’s competitiveness,with ideology in mind.In the post-Merkel era,there will be more competition between Germany and China.

An Overview of Big Data Industry in China

The year of 2011 is considered the first year of big data market in China.Compared with the global scale,China's big data growth will be faster than the global average growth rate,and China will usher in the rapid expansion of big data market in the next few years.This paper presents the overall big data development in China in terms of market scale and development stages,enterprise development in the industry chain,the technology standards,and industrial applications.The paper points out the issues and challenges facing big data development in China and proposes to make polices and create support approaches for big data transactions and personal privacy protection.

The health care economic-industrial complex: Concepts and general characteristics

The strategic role of health care within the Brazilian development agenda has been increasingly recognized and institutionalized. Aside from its importance as a structural element of the Welfare State, health care plays a leading role in generating innovation. Despite this, the productive base of Brazil’s health care system is extremely fragile, jeopardizing both the universal provision of health care services and the country’s competitive insertion in the globalized environment. This suggests the need for a more systematic analysis of the complex relationships that exist between the technological and the social interests involved in the productive base of health care provision in Brazil. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to enhance our understanding of the productive base of health care, especially given its potential to contribute to a socially inclusive development model, which is the ultimate goal in Brazil.

NEW POLICIES PROMOTE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

The Chinese government issued a regulation on promoting the transformation of R&D results recently. The new policies, which were jointly formulated by seven governmental departments, are aimed at further encouraging China’s scientists to commercialize their R&D results, set up new hi-tech business and speed up the process of China’s hi-tech industrialization.

Impact of scientific and technological innovation policies on innovation efficiency of high-technology industrial parks-A dual analysis with linear regression and QCA

Scientific and technological innovation policies play a critical role in the innovative development of high-technology industrial parks.However,it remains unclear how scientific and technological innovation policies impact the innovation efficiency of hightechnology industrial parks and what the impact pathways are.An in-depth investigation of this topic can give an insight into the inherent relation between the scientific and technological innovation policies and technological innovation.By conducting a theoretical analysis,this study empirically analyzed the impact of scientific and technological innovation policies on the innovation efficiency of high-technology industrial parks.The main research methods applied in this study were linear regression and qualitative comparative analysis(QCA).The results showed that the policy targets drove innovation efficiency in a relatively minor way.Among all policy tools,the demand-based policy tools had the most significant influence on innovation efficiency.The supply-based and environment-based policy tools had notable positive impacts during the lag periods of policies.The policy mix pathways for scientific and technological innovation policies that impact innovation efficiency come in four forms,namely,the targets-directed,demand-driven,supplydominated environment optimization,and environment-dominated comprehensive pathways.Therefore,this study put forward proposals on classifying and refining the scientific and technological innovation policies and optimizing the policy mix-driven models.

Japanese Science and Technology Basic Plan: A Perspective of Policy Process

The Japanese government formulates the Science and Technology Basic Plan every five years based on the Science and Technology Basic Law, and indicates the future direction of Japan’s science and technology. This paper describes its history, significance, and decision process of this Science and Technology Basic Plan. Then this paper describes the characteristics of the previous five plans, contributions to Japanese science and technological activities, and its challenges for the future. In the formulation of the Science and Technology Basic Plan, the role of the Council for Science and Technology Policy has been significant. However, after establishing Shinzo Abe administration, the inclination to global innovation has been emphasized in Japan as well, the Council for Science and Technology Policy was renamed the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, and the midterm and annual strategies centered on innovation have also been prepared. This paper described these movements.Japan suffers from population decline and the increase in governmental deficits, and there is also a tendency towards weakness in science and technology innovation. To formulate more suitable science and technology basic plans will revitalize and strengthen Japan’s science and technology innovation.

Grain Science and Technology Policies and Food Security in China:An Empirical Study Based on a Provincial Dynamic Panel Model

China’s grain science and technology policies have played an important role in the development of China’s food industry.This paper aims to examine the effects of China’s grain science and technology policies on food security.It quantitatively assesses China’s food security by analyzing the main contents and development trends of China’s food science technology policies through the text metrology method,and then investigates the effects of grain science and technology policies on food security by employing a provincial dynamic panel model.The results show that food security in China is all-round developed,and that the release frequency and cumulative effect of grain science and technology policies play a significant role in promoting food security.Powerful grain science and technology policies can effectively guarantee China’s food security.